The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission projects data centers and related power plants could cause a nearly 19%-a-year jump in demand statewide for electricity over the next five years.<\/p>\n
An annual Electric Power Outlook Report released Tuesday forecasts residential and commercial electricity demand to grow modestly through 2030, but industrial use driven primarily by anticipated large-load customers will increase by a whopping average of 18.56% annually.<\/p>\n
As a result, Pennsylvania\u2019s electricity needs could rise substantially over the next several years, primarily from rapidly growing demand from data centers and other large-load customers, combined with broader regional challenges involving electric generation, transmission and resource adequacy, the PUC said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPennsylvania\u2019s electricity needs have been relatively stable for years, but large new loads have the potential to fundamentally change that picture,\u201d PUC Chairman Steve DeFrank said in a statement. \u201cThat makes accurate forecasting and careful planning more important than ever. We need a clear picture of what demand is actually coming and sufficient generation and transmission to reliably serve that growth, while continuing to protect existing consumers from unreasonable costs.\u201d<\/p>\n
The advent and proliferation of data centers and power plants and their demands for electricity are reshaping Pennsylvania\u2019s forecasts. Total electricity consumption statewide decreased 0.24% in 2025 compared with 2024, even as the number of electric customers increased approximately 0.4%. Now, forecasts submitted by Pennsylvania\u2019s major electric distribution companies (EDCs) show sharply different growth rates among customer classes. Over the five-year forecast period, average annual electricity usage is projected to increase approximately:<\/p>\n
\u20220.52% for residential customers.<\/p>\n
\u20220.32% for commercial customers.<\/p>\n
\u202218.56% for industrial customers, primarily data centers.<\/p>\n
PPL forecasts huge spike in electricity use<\/p>\n
The most dramatic spike ahead in use will come in the PPL Electric Utilities service territory, where total electricity usage is forecast to increase an average 20.51% annually, and industrial usage is forecast to soar an average 51.05% annually through 2030 \u2014 almost entirely attributable to anticipated large data centers.<\/p>\n
The Times-Tribune broke news in Sunday\u2019s edition of a PPL Corp. joint venture having secured more than 11 square miles of northern Lackawanna County from Dunmore businessman Dominick DeNaples \u2014 including land bordering a vital source of public drinking water \u2014 to explore building at least two massive power plants for data centers.<\/p>\n
A holding company tied to PPL Corp. and its venture with Blackstone Infrastructure signed agreements in April and June to purchase nearly 7,200 acres across Archbald, Carbondale, Carbondale Twp., Fell Twp. and Mayfield, while the joint venture also filed requests to add 2.25 gigawatts of natural gas power plants in Lackawanna County, according to that newspaper article. The exact location of the two power plants is unclear, though the timing of the requests coincides with a memorandum to purchase land for a \u201cwest campus\u201d that begins in Carbondale Twp. above Business Route 6, lines the city and extends north through Fell Twp. An east campus includes properties spanning from near Aylesworth Park in Archbald north to the Brownell Reservoir in Carbondale Twp., which provides 2 million gallons of drinking water daily to surrounding communities.<\/p>\n
PPL Corp. spokesman Ryan Hill emphasized to The Times-Tribune that acquiring large swaths of land does not necessarily mean developing all of it; and large sites provide flexibility for setbacks, buffers, open space, green space and other considerations for a power generation project.<\/p>\n
Over the last year-and-a-half, Lackawanna County has emerged as a hot spot for largely speculative data center development encompassing thousands of acres and more than a dozen proposed projects. Though some developers have shifted plans to fewer buildings with bigger footprints, the county has around 90 proposed data centers, previously peaking at close to 100. Multiple proposals are tied up in litigation.<\/p>\n
PPL Corp.\u2019s venture with Blackstone also in April purchased 500-plus acres in Luzerne County for $40.4 million, while also filing for two natural gas power plants with identical outputs to the Lackawanna County projects at 1,500 and 750 megawatts. PPL Corp. is distinct from PPL Electric Utilities, and utility ratepayers will not pay for the developments, Hill said.<\/p>\n
The \u2018grid\u2019 girds for spike in demand<\/p>\n
The PUC stressed that forecasts are not set in stone, and large-load projects can change because of economic conditions, financing, construction schedules, technology and other factors. The PUC report also notes PPL\u2019s projected load growth does not, by itself, indicate a future capacity shortfall in either the PPL service territory or in the broader PJM regional electrical power grid.<\/p>\n
PJM Interconnection LLC, which is the largest electrical grid operator in the nation, encompasses Pennsylvania and a dozen other states and Washington, D.C., providing power to 67 million people.\n<\/p>\n
Reflecting the already-strained grid, PJM received approval via emergency orders from the U.S. Department of Energy multiple times this summer to temporarily allow data centers to rely on their backup generators for power to supplement the grid and avoid blackouts during sweltering weather. Data centers account for 30 of the 32 gigawatts of forecasted electricity demand increases between 2024 and 2030, according to PJM.<\/p>\n
The PJM queue currently has 20 gigawatts of new power generation applications pending, including several in Luzerne, Lackawanna and Susquehanna County, to name a few.<\/p>\n
The PUC report notes \u201cregional reliability challenges\u201d remain, as the soaring-demand forecast also comes as Pennsylvania and the PJM region continue focusing on the resources and infrastructure needed to maintain reliable electric service. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation\u2019s latest long-term assessment projects that PJM\u2019s anticipated reserve margin could fall below its required reserve margin in 2029, reflecting the combined effects of growing electricity demand, generation retirements and the pace at which new resources are entering service.<\/p>\n
At the same time, Pennsylvania continues to be one of the nation\u2019s leading electricity-producing states. Generating capacity in the Commonwealth increased from 45,096 megawatts (MW) in 2024 to 45,733 MW in 2025, and no Pennsylvania generators submitted notices of deactivation during 2025. Investment in the regional transmission system is also increasing. PJM\u2019s 2025 Regional Transmission Expansion Plan identified approximately $3.56 billion in transmission projects in Pennsylvania, compared with $1.64 billion identified in the previous year\u2019s plan.\n<\/p>\n
Planning ahead<\/p>\n
The PUC has expanded its examination of long-term electric load forecasting, including requesting longer-range demand and peak-load projections from Pennsylvania EDCs, while continuing its work addressing large-load customers and examining the generation and transmission resources needed to reliably serve Pennsylvania consumers.<\/p>\n
These efforts reflect the increasing importance of understanding not only\u00a0how much electricity may be needed, but also\u00a0where and when that demand could materialize, so utilities, grid operators and regulators can better evaluate the infrastructure needed to serve it, the PUC said.<\/p>\n
Staff Writer Frank Wilkes Lesnefsky contributed to this article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission projects data centers and related power plants could cause a nearly 19%-a-year jump…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[201,182,803,139,28,178,180,179,181],"class_list":["post-276918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-luzerne-county","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-top-stories-stt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}